Re: Apache

[Ted Hilts]

Robert

I don't think you understood me or I now misunderstand you. First, I use the designation www.name.com below to represent the URL for a hosted web site on the Internet for a server located at a Texas location.  In all cases, please understand that www.name.com represents a physical Internet site not on my LAN, and on the Internet with an ISP provided static IP address.

I have a Linux web page server on my LAN called "spcl" (spcl.mspt.com) which has associated with it by the "hosts" file the IP address 192.168.1.4.  The LAN network is also defined in a system configuration file as being  192.168.1.0

Therefore www.name.com is my reference for the machine down in Texas where I rent use of one of several virtual web servers on a specific server from a web hosting company.

But I want to set up my LAN Apache web server to serve to the LAN the SAME content that is served by the Internet virtual Apache server down in Texas.  There is a good reason for wanting to do this which I explain at the end of this note.

The first thing I did was make a directory and file copy of the contents of the Internet based Apache server down in Texas.

I placed this "copy" - the entire set of files onto the LAN Linux Apache web server machine.  

The content of this information which I moved from the Apache server in Texas onto my LAN Apache server contains references like: http://www.name.com/directory/file.html and http://www.name.com/another_directory/image_file.gif , etc.  I don't want to change these references and I don't want browser use of these references to go out onto the Internet.  I want  LAN browser use of these URL to go exclusively to the LAN based Apache web page service. But of course I need a way of turning this on and off so that when I want my browser to access the Texas site it will or when I want my browser to access the LAN based Apache service it will.  First before getting to the switching aspect of the problem I have to make it possible for LAN based browsers to access the LAN based Apache server - serving the exact same content as the Texas server.

In other words, there are full path (including domain name) references through out the hundreds of thousands of files.

The LAN Apache machine refers to itself as "spcl" for "spcl.mspt.com" at location 192.168.1.4

It will not respond to a URL like http://www.name.com/directory/file.html
The first question is how to get it to do exactly that, respond to a browser access to http://www.name.com without going out to this location on the Internet.

My question could temporarily (for illustration purposes) be phrased as:  If I change "spcl" for "http:www.name.com" (do I need the "http://" part or is that just for the browser- I think it it is just a browser reference and all I need is www.name.com defined somewhere?) I know that won't be enough to cause the LAN Apache server to respond to that address.   For example, "http.www.name.com" already has a static IP address out on the Internet.  I don't have a DNS machine in the LAN to provide IP address resolution as I use the "hosts" file and a resolve file to resolve name and associated IP addresses.  I don't have in any configuration files (Apche, Samba, or system Network related files)  a reference to a network called "http://www.name.com (www.name.com) or an IP address match.  Does the Apache name determination have to be consistent with other configuration information like found in the hosts file - I understand that Apache looks at these files to identify itself????

I would like to be able to do this without changing the "spcl" (192.168.1.4)  so that Apache on my LAN would respond to both the local reference as well as the Internet reference name.  You appear to have understood that I want the LAN machine to redirect to the Internet machine or some other kind of redirection effort.  I don't want the LAN Apache server to do anything other than to serve the same files in the same directories as currently does the Apache web server located in Texas and serving the Internet traffic.  But now those directories and files will also reside in the LAN based Apache server.  Maybe this is more complicated in my mind than it should be?  The problem lies in the hundred of thousands of URL references containing "http://www.name.com/directory/file.html and other full path references all having the Internet Domain Name imbedded in them.

I want to be able to test the exact web content of the Texas machine on my LAN server.  There are also other reasons that demand I do not do away with the URL references containing the full domain name.  Once all this is set up I will get rid of the virtual server in Texas and connect the LAN Apache server to the Internet via a 2 way Satellite connection.  At that time the the URL "http://www.name.com will point via an ISP DNS to my LAN location because I will have moved to a new ISP with my registered domain name.  At that time this ISP will assign a new IP Internet address.  The difference at this point is that I will have full control and responsibility over the web server on my LAN.  The high level of storage for my web site in  Texas now demands I have the full resources of a server machine with hundreds of gigabytes.  The cost of doing this through a hosted service is too severe for me to sustain. A hosted dedicated server is very expensive.   By using my LAN equipment I can significantly reduce this cost.

I have other interface issues (such as the switching, routing through the gateway, etc) and was hoping to get a bit of help from the Red Hat List on the Apache server issue.

Any help on this would be appreciated.  I am trying to do this a simply as possible.

Bye-thanks_Ted
Sorry for any typos.